The Hongkong and Canton Railway, 106 miles, has been completed and marks a new lease of life for Hongkong as the emporium of South, West and Central China, when the railways from Canton are extended. The Hongkong Railway starts from Kowloon, across the narrow harbor, running through 19 miles of British territory, and the remainder through Chinese territory. The British section, on account of the many tunnels through mountains, cost almost as much as the entire Chinese section. The fine steamers of the Hongkong and Canton Steamboat Company, which are well known to world tourists, and many Chinese steamers and junks compete, but there is traffic for all, and when there isn’t there will be pooling for all. The Hongkong government, through the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, loaned the Kwangtung province government the money for the Chinese section. (This is an illustration of a few loans which have not been made to the national government at Peking, and represents provincial as against the nationalized trunk railway scheme which helped to bring on the revolution.) The road runs through a part of the country requiring much trestle work, and bridging on account of waterways. The long Chinese section of the road cost less with one exception than any standard gage railway in the world, $35,000 per mile, the nearest approach to this in America being sections of the Great Northern Railway built years ago at $40,000 per mile. Nearly all the freight and passenger cars were made at Hongkong. The best built railway in China is the Shanghai-Nanking. In easy country it cost $55,000 per mile. It was built by British contractors on the elaborate, permanent English plan, whose maxim is, “a stitch in time saves nine”. What spoiled the Chinese in hiring foreign contractors was their experience with a section of the Shanghai-Hangchow railway. The Kiangsu and Chekiang provincial governments, hiring native contractors and engineers (who were trained in America) built a satisfactory road of 125 miles at $25,000 per mile, as compared with the British continuation north, of $55,000 per mile. The Chinese have never ceased talking of this economy, although they admit that the English road is better and worth $35,000 per mile, but not $55,000. Another objection they make is that foreign syndicates charge five per cent. commission on their purchases. In the railway from Pukow (opposite Nanking) to Tientsin, the foreign syndicate was not allowed commission on purchases, so that the “Pukow plan” is favored. In reference to the low cost, $35,000 per mile, of the difficult Peking-Kalgan railway, 140 miles, which was built by the Chinese exclusively, the _Chinese Students’ Journal_ says: “In the construction of the railway, economy, which must not be confounded with cheapness, must always be kept in view. All railways built in China must be paid for by our people, and our people are poor. A railway is not a club-house on which to expend millions.